See Part 1 of our 2023 Year in Review. See Part 2 of our 2023 Year in Review.
Top 5 2023 Articles by Lighthouse Trails Editors
1) Hard Lessons in Discernment: People often wonder, whether they verbalize it or not, why Lighthouse Trails has taken on the task of “criticizing other ministries.” After all, isn’t unity the most important thing in all of Christianity? Recently, for example, our office received an e-mail from someone who was very upset over our critiques and concerns of the movie series, The Chosen. Read more.
2) Will “Revival” in Christian Colleges Bring About a Generation of Mystics — With “Woke,” Not Biblical, Values?: With the Asbury “revival” spreading into various other colleges and universities (and even churches), and with so much talk about revival today, one question that needs to be asked is, what kind of Christian will the majority of today’s Christian institutions produce through their revivals and their discipling of these recipients? Given that most, if not all, of the schools that are picking up on Asbury’s recent “revival” have been on the Lighthouse Trails contemplative-promoting college list for a number of years, we are compelled to examine how this contemplative influence will define the framework of the “fruit” of today’s college “revivals.” Read more.
3) A Matter of “Truth” and “Connie Frisbee’s Surprising Reaction to Jesus Revolution Movie”: Regarding the new movie out in theaters, Jesus Revolution, our office has received numerous calls and e-mails asking if we are going to be making a statement about the movie. While there are several pro and con articles on the Internet about it, we do not at this time intend on writing a point-by-point critique of the movie. However, there is an aspect we want to address. Since our inception, the mission at Lighthouse Trails has been to defend “truth” and “bring light to areas of darkness in the world and in the church.” Thus, it is increasingly troubling to witness the massive numbers of professing Christians (including pastors) who quickly follow after and embrace popular books, speakers, and movies without giving the slightest consideration for truth and biblical discernment. Read more.
4) The Bottom Line of A.W. Tozer: A Hybrid of Complex Proportions: Over the past several years, a number of our readers have asked us why we have not written about the theologian A.W. Tozer and warned our readers about his often quoting and referencing medieval-period and other mystics (many of them Roman Catholics). Thus, we have known about Tozer’s affinity toward the mystics for some time now and have hoped we might someday be able to address this. Partly because it hasn’t been evident whether he practiced mystical meditation himself (though he was clearly enamored with the writings of many mystics), we haven’t followed through with researching and writing about him. And we also realized that to really write about Tozer would be a huge undertaking for he was somewhat of a complex hybrid (we’ll explain what we mean by that later), and it would take a deep dissecting and studying of his works to uncover all the layers. Frankly, we have just not had the time to do it. Read more.
5) A Look at Shiny Happy People and What the Church Can Learn: On June 2nd, Amazon Prime aired a new docuseries called Shiny Happy People (Duggar Family Secrets). It was difficult to watch for several reasons, but we knew it was necessary. If you watch it, we believe you will understand what we mean. What’s sad is that it took a secular group to expose what the church should have dealt with years ago. Basically, if the church refuses to judge itself on seriously gone wrong issues, then the world will judge us; and because they do not understand the nature of true Christianity vs those within the church who have sorely and often horrifically misrepresented Christianity, secular exposés will grossly generalize and lump together the real and the fake. Read more.
Top 5 2023 LT Articles by Other Authors
1) What a Sovereign God Cannot Do (And How the Calvinist View Just Doesn’t Work) by Dave Hunt: One of the most common expressions one hears in Christian circles, especially for reassurance when things aren’t going well, is that “God is in control; He’s still on the throne.” Christians comfort themselves with these words—but what do they mean? Was God not “in control” when Satan rebelled and when Adam and Eve disobeyed, but now He is? Does God’s being in control mean that all the rape, murder, war, and multiplied evil is exactly what He planned and desires? Read more.
2) Southern Poverty Lawsuit Against Child Protectors Could Set Precedent for Normalizing Adult-Child Sex by Philip Zodhiates: The nature of this article is alarming and disturbing, and I’d be wrong not to warn you. But it is vital you know what is taking place in the ongoing battle to protect children. Our most innocent ones face perhaps the most egregious danger so far, something of which the most informed Americans are not likely aware. Read more.
3) Israel—A Burdensome Stone to the Nations and the Apple of God’s Eye by Mike Oppenheimer: A new war rages by the estranged brethren of Abraham as the question of the ownership of the land and the people are still the main issue. However, there is no debate as to ownership; this question has been settled for nearly 3,500 years. Read more.
4) How to Strengthen the Faith of Our Children & Grandchildren With 5-Minute Conversations by T.A. McMahon: What you’ll be reading is one of the ways to counteract the lies that are overtaking the hearts and minds of the upcoming generation. I am hopeful that the suggested discussions may be useful for a born-again grandparent and his or her grandchild or a believing parent and his child. What I’m sharing is not a classroom situation. It’s a teaching on the go, a “catch-as-catch-can” sort of endeavor, and it centers around conversation focused primarily on the Gospel. Read more.
5) World Government on the Horizon? by Tony Pearce: World government. Could it be that we’re heading towards a world government? One of the things I say when I give my prophecy talks is that there are two things happening in the world today: “The world falling apart, and the world coming together.” These seem to be the opposites, but we clearly see that as things are falling apart, they’re also coming together. Read more.